The latest On3 Big 12 Coaches Poll says BYU is the favorite to win the conference, but the real story is how messy the rest of the ballot looks.
Sixteen Big 12 coaches picked the Cougars to take the league title, with Texas Tech right behind them at four votes. Utah and Houston each pulled in two votes, while Arizona got one and Iowa State got one as well.
That’s where the poll starts to feel a little wild. TCU ended up grouped with Iowa State and West Virginia in the discussion, and two different coaches actually chose the Cyclones and Mountaineers to win the whole thing. That’s the kind of result that makes the whole exercise feel like a little bit of trolling.
A BYU-Texas Tech championship matchup makes sense on paper, but the poll seems to sell short what TCU, Utah and Houston could be this season. Arizona also belongs in the conversation as a team that could spoil things late, especially with Noah Fifita entering the year carrying Heisman-level expectations.
The bigger takeaway is how wide open the league looks. Seven Big 12 coaches - nearly half the conference - picked Houston or Utah just to reach the title game, which says plenty about how little separation there is right now.
Parity is the Big 12’s calling card, and the fact that BYU and Texas Tech don’t meet in the regular season only adds to the uncertainty. Utah’s role matters too, especially with the Holy War carrying major implications for the conference race. Add Utah’s road trip and BYU’s non-conference game against Notre Dame in Provo, and Kalani Sitake has a couple of potential stumbling blocks in front of him.
In the end, the poll says as much about the league’s unpredictability as it does about any actual favorite. Coaches had some fun with it, and the results leave you with two clear messages: BYU is the name at the top, and the Big 12 is still impossible to pin down.
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